Are any companies doing well right now?

Professional Actuarial Topics Property/Casualty
1

Market looks terrible everywhere I look.

2

use the sort function

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3

Define “doing well” . . .

4

less than 90% combined ratio

5

maybe even 95% in this environment

6

FWIW, I know of some companies that target a combined ratio over 100% trying to be more competitive and relying on investment income to end up in the black (financially).

And this strikes me far more as being a “normal” part of the underwriting cycle conflated with the ongoing recovery from the COVID shutdown and the petroleum situation with Ukraine.

7

All the time, our customers ask us, “How do you make money doing this?” The answer is simple: Volume. That’s what we do.

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8

I hesitate to use a single year’s combined ratio as a way to define “doing well”, but a few carriers that were sub-90 in the US in 21, and were no worse than 95 in 20:

  • Zurich
  • WR Berkley
  • Markel
  • Great American
  • Old Republic
  • RLI (also sub-90 in '20)
  • Starr (also sub-90 in '20)

ROEs are more interesting to me, given that several low-CR companies have to tie up a lot of capital to support risky reserves, while many higher-CR companies aren’t so encumbered.

Within that list, WR Berkley, Markel, Old Republic, and RLI all show in a list of US insurance groups with the highest ROEs in 2021.

I have no clue (or I’m not interested enough to go digging to find out) how non-US results would impact this list.

9

Acrisure just secured naming rights to the Pittsburg Steelers stadium.

Insurance is in, ketchup is out.

10

is credit Suisse bankrupt yet

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